This time of year is one of my favorites. The cool weather, the smells, and knowing that Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner just make me happy.

As to where I get into trouble – clothes. I adore fall and winter clothes. I have to restrain from buying everything I like, especially now that I work at home. In my dream world, here are a few things I would pick up if I didn’t have/want to stick to a budget and if I actually had somewhere to wear them. (Oh, and I clearly have a thing for polka dots and skirts.)

For the first time in 6 years I wasn’t with this amazing group of girls on Labor Day. Oh, how I missed you all! Can’t wait for the Searcy reunion next year!

On the plus side, Mike and I did get to spend a wonderful weekend with my parents. Besides enjoying an incredible farmer’s market and other local sights, my Mom and I got our entry and tv room painted (hello, high ceilings!) and Mike and my Dad made huge improvements to our front yard. Before and after pictures are below.

Life is settling down again now that we’re in our house and getting settled. I don’t want to get busy with life and forget everything I have to be thankful for. This week I’m thankful for:

Mike. I married an amazing guy and am so thankful for his hard work, love, and support.

my parents coming to visit. They get here tomorrow and I cannot wait!

our new house and neighborhood. It is so nice to have our things again and to have the PNW finally feel more like home. Our new neighbors are amazing – one couple brought us cold drinks when we were cleaning and before we had our fridge, another brought us a pound of NW roasted coffee, a different couple stopped by to offer to help if we needed anything, and our HOA brought us a gift card to a local restaurant. All of them have given us their names and numbers and said to call if we needed anything. Amazing.

cooler weather. Fall is around the corner and I have my decorations and candles out and ready to go. I’m looking forward to quiet, dark evenings snuggled up on the couch in my sweats.

our new church. The people are incredibly nice, I’m helping with the 4 & 5 year olds, and have already been asked to apply for a job there.

for God’s timing. I still don’t understand it all, and may never do so this side of heaven, but I’m trusting Him (even when I kick and cry a little about things not going my way).

I’m not sure how many more times I can say “I’m back” before anyone who reads this blog stops believing me and stops reading all together. We’ll see how this time goes and I’m making another list of updates right now because I can.

Today, we got the green light to close on our new house next Friday. I think I’m still in disbelief but am so humbled and thankful for God’s timing. I cannot wait to make our house a home and fill it with friends and family.

Since we now know that we actually get to purchase this house I have lost almost all motivation to do anything but mentally arrange furniture and pick out paint colors.

Making this house a home will provide much needed blog content.

It’s approximately 50 degrees outside when I get up in the morning. We have yet to have a day with temperatures any higher than 75. To my family and friends in the Midwest and South, please remember my first bullet about filling our home with friends and family – we can promise a cooler-weather respite if you need it.

Here’s a picture of our new house – before and after pictures will follow and I promise to omit a picture of the mold-filled fridge that the people left behind WITH FOOD IN IT AND THE POWER OFF!

Lists are one of my “happy things.” They’re organized, difficult to misunderstand, and they work. With that said, here’s a random one.

our house is 100% sold. All parties have signed, sealed, and delivered the necessary documents. Yay, God!

new laws kicked in on June 1 that are supposed to speed up short sale processes. We’ve been waiting 45 days for news on purchasing a short sale here so, Lord willing, we’ll have a closing date finalized in the next two weeks. Yay, God!

I had a fabulous trip home to visit my family. My Mom took last week off to go with me to meet the movers at our Kansas house and having her there made the process much more enjoyable.

The 50 degree Seattle weather is not cooperating with my desire to wear summer skirts. It needs to warm up or I need to build up more tolerance for chilly weather.

The title almost sounds like something you’d use as a “Hey, we’re having twins! A boy and a girl!” announcement but in this case, it’s not. (Sorry to anyone who was hoping otherwise after that little intro.)

It’s actually referring to the theme of one of our Saturdays a few weeks back. Each year, a town about an hour and a half from us hosts the Skagit County Tulip festival. It’s like Holland but much closer. I, of course, wanted to go see the fields and fields of tulips, daffodils, and irises. Mike’s work hosts an open house at it’s tech center on one of the same weekends as the tulip fest so we killed two birds with one stone. I hope we can make the tulips a yearly tradition!

An old Kenworth truck. The bed on the truck was a beautiful wood.

The newest model.

The main festival host has a small garden you can walk through to see each tulip it has available up close. They don’t grow all of the types in mass quantities but you can buy the bulbs.

Then there are the fields of tulips. All planted and growing in tidy rows. This picture and the one below make me wish I could get special treatment to visit before anyone else can and take pictures without the people in them.

We sold our house! While we may not understand this side of heaven why it took 8 months to sell, we are incredibly thankful for His provision and timing as a large company in our town filed for bankruptcy two days after we had a signed contract. The company will remain open during the bankruptcy process but our general suspicion is that there will be a significant number of people trying to move out of the town which means more houses on the market.

I hope it isn’t inappropriate to say that we are thankful to “check” another prayer request off our list but we are so glad the prayer request has been answered.

We have an offer on a short sale house here and hope to have a closing date by the end of this month. We are ready to make anew home here, truly get settled, an open our house to visitors! Thank you all for your prayers during the last few months – we appreciate them so much!

We’re in a period of waiting. Waiting for our house to sell, waiting for a house here, waiting… As humans we often feel that the waiting would be easier if we knew what the end result was. I know I’ve had that thought that many times in the last few months but today I wondered if it were really true.

Christ knew what God’s plan for him was. He knew he would be accused of things he hadn’t done and sent to die a horrible death on the cross. Can you imagine knowing that was the end result and waiting for it? Waiting for friends to say they didn’t know you, waiting to be beaten, waiting to die?

That revelation put our current “waiting stage” into perspective. I’m going to wait until God’s timing is here. I can’t say that I won’t wait without a little (or a lot) of frustration and tears, but I will do it.

Today, on Good Friday, I am thankful that Jesus waited for what was to come, that He died on the cross for my sins, and that Sunday is coming.